Declaration of the First International
Symposium on Circumcision

We recognize the inherent right of all human beings to an intact body.
Without religious or racial prejudice, we affirm this basic human right.

We recognize that the foreskin, clitoris and labia are normal, functional
body parts.

Parents and/or guardians do not have the right to consent to the surgical
removal or modification of their children's normal genitalia.

Physicians and other health­care providers have a responsibility to
refuse to remove or mutilate normal body parts.

The only persons who may consent to medically unnecessary procedures upon
themselves are the individuals who have reached the age of consent (adulthood),
and then only after being fully informed about the risks and benefits of the
procedure.

We categorically state that circumcision has unrecognized victims.

In view of the serious physical and psychological consequences that we have
witnessed in victims of circumcision, we hereby oppose the performance of a
single additional unnecessary foreskin, clitoral, or labial amputation
procedure.

We oppose any further studies which involve the performance of the
circumcision procedure upon unconsenting minors. We support any further studies
which involve identification of the effects of circumcision.

Physicians and other health­care providers do have a responsibility to
teach hygiene and the care of normal body parts and explain their normal
anatomical and physiological development and function throughout life.

We place the medical community on notice that it is being held accountable
for misconstruing the scientific database available on human circumcision in the
world today.

Physicians who practice routine circumcisions are violating the first maxim
of medical practice, "Primum Non Nocere," "First, Do No Harm," and anyone
practicing genital mutilation is violating Article V of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment..."